Chuao Chocolatier - Exploding Coal - popping candy and black cacao (bar) - Jan. 30, 2025

Chocolate of the Day

Chuao Chocolatier
Exploding Coal - popping candy and black cacao (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1.4 oz. (40 g) / 2.8 oz. (80 g.) in total bar
Calories: 210 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $5.99 (estimate) for 1 bar
Purchased from: FarmFresh, online order 

Welcome to Day #2 of Unique Chocolates Week, featuring interesting origins and form factors, as well as surprising flavor additions.

Today's Exploding Coal bar with popping candy and black cacao was created by Chef Antonorsi at Chuao Chocolatier (Carlsbad, CA). 

Drawing inspiration from a fossil fuel is unique, although the reference to coal has more to do with Christmas* than combustibles.

Aroma notes included: roasted dark chocolate and sweet vanilla.

I enjoyed the playful textures in this holiday bar: the hard snap of dark chocolate, effervescent popping candy and a constellation of tiny, crunchy sugar sparkles.

Flavor notes included: robust but friendly, toasty dark chocolate (deep but smooth cocoa) and warm sweet vanilla (marshmallow) and sweet popping candy.

This naughty (rather addicting) and nice "coal" dark chocolate would be a welcome addition to any Christmas stocking.

Ingredients: Premium 60% dark chocolate (cacao*, cane sugar*, cacao butter*, sunflower lecithin [as an emulsifier], natural vanilla), popping candy (sugar, maltose, carbon dioxide), black cacao powder*.

Allergen-related information: "Manufactured in a facility that uses milk, soy, tree nuts, and wheat on shared equipment."

*Children in the 1800s-1900s were told they would receive a lump of coal in their Christmas stocking if they landed on Santa's "naughty" list. As coal was often used to heat homes, the sight of these black lumps in a scuttle by the stove or fireplace (where Santa entered a home) made it a more credible threat back then.

ChocolateBet: December 25, 2010

Chocolate(s) of the Day:

1/3 lump of chocolate coal
Maramor Chocolates
Premium Milk Chocolate - "You Deserve a Lump of Coal!"(R)
Good +
Weight: .41 oz. (11.5 g.) in 1/3 pc. / 1.25 oz. (35 g.) total package
Cost: $ (need to find receipt)
Purchased from: Blockbuster, in Palo Alto, CA

Maramor Chocolates "You Deserve a Lump of Coal!" was another example of a theme that was too limited for its own theme week in 2010: chocolate and minerals/carbon. There are chocolate diamonds; but those aren't edible. And I doubt chocolate covered anthracite would be a big hit.

It's also a little depressing to think about deserving only a lump of black foil wrapped coal in your stocking on Christmas Day. So, in addition to a few bites of "coal," I ate a Chocolate Banquet's worth of other goodies today.

As a child, we could count on finding candy canes and tangerines in our stockings. So, I felt obliged to sample a bit of Brown and Haley's Candy Cane Roca as well. And, yes, tangerines are good and refreshing as a palette cleanser between chocolates.

I hope Santa was good to everyone.